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Topic: Preping finances for a major crisis (Read 2365 times)

Came across this video the other day. One of the presenters brings up the idea of a technological 9/11 in which cellphones and other modern means of communication and commerce are shutdown. Just wondering if anyone on the forum has given thought to how something like this might impact your FIRE plans or while already FIRED?

I guess not so much in that the stock market will tank, but things like access to funds and general management of your personal finances. Like lets say you cant get money out of an account or cannot transfer funds electronically, or cannot communicate with out of state property management, etc. Has anyone taken any precautions against such and event? Anyone given any thought to how to deal with such an event and minimize impact to you personally?

I've thought about that recently. I know many people who use the web for their livelihood and it would financially ruin them, along with all the web-based businesses there are (Amazon, Netflix, etc.). Personally, I would miss it a lot, as that's how I talk to friends around the world and do many things in my life (look up how to fix something, new recipes, new to me music, etc.). Financially I would be fine.

I'm sure it would be fixed very soon, but hypothetically if there was a long outage, we would have to go back to the way things were done 30 or 40 years ago. So I would get a paper check from my employer, walk to the credit union to deposit it, withdraw some cash for groceries and stuff, order some checks to use for paying my mortgage and utilities, balance my checkbook, etc. Hell, I remember doing these things in the early 2000's. My first mortgage even had one of those coupon books. I guess I would have to get a landline phone too, and figure out how to hook up the big TV antenna that is still on my house. A lot of people would lose jobs but other industries would come back, like newspapers and the postal service. Libraries would suddenly become a lot more popular.

I'd be fucked. Same as if a meteor strikes the country. Or a tsunami floods all the way to the Rockies. Or Saddam Hussein's resurrected body occupies the white house (ok, that could be an improvement). Or the electric grid goes down for 4 months. Or any number of catastrophic and improbable events. I'd have bigger issues than getting my money though. Can't prepare for them all, I'll figure out what to do when it happens.

As long as the electricity stays on and the paychecks keep coming we'd be fine - or if we had a chance to pull cash out of the bank accounts for a long quiet period. Don't necessarily need gasoline to get to the store and work. To be honest, there is a certain appeal to living like this again.

It is part of the reason I don't use social media. I like a simplified life - less media, minimal advertising, less pop-culture, less news, more "doing stuff".

I have extremely low expenses and no debt so keep enough real cash on hand to last me a couple of months - which is like $1000 ;-).

ETA I could actually live a pretty long time without having to access anything electronically or even.withdraw cash. However if its the zombie apocalypse and lasts months or years I'd eventually have to resort to more drastic measures - like getting a job (THE HORROR!!!)

Lol I know, terrifying!

I'm in the same boat as you (and many others)with the low overhead, cash and food on hand. I've heard of these scenarios before, but something about the context around how the concern was framed and the gravity of it being discussed at the world economic forum. It sent chills up my spine, and made me wonder "what am I missing".... I cant put my finger on it.

Interesting line of thought, but if modern commerce collapses, and all of it is e-commerce, not only do I no longer have money, but also my bank doesn't have a record of what I currently owe on my mortgage. The deed to my home, filed with my county (paper) indicates that the bank has a lien on the property, but couldn't represent the monetary value assigned to that lien.

Interesting line of thought, but if modern commerce collapses, and all of it is e-commerce, not only do I no longer have money, but also my bank doesn't have a record of what I currently owe on my mortgage. The deed to my home, filed with my county (paper) indicates that the bank has a lien on the property, but couldn't represent the monetary value assigned to that lien.

Thanks for bringing that up. Yes, its hard to imagine how something like the loan value would be resolved. Or how trucks would know where to make their deliveries. Or how some businesses would know how to get a hold of their vendors without their digital address book. Would cell phone service providers know which phones need to use their service when the electricity fires back on? Would computers know how to talk to each other still? How long would that take to sort out?

I don't think walking over to the credit union with a check to cash would work exactly. Banks no longer have paper ledgers of who has what in their accounts. Or do they? As far as I know, the banks are entirely reliant on the internet as well. I'm not sure we could access the money in our accounts if the internet was down for an extended period of time.

Interesting line of thought, but if modern commerce collapses, and all of it is e-commerce, not only do I no longer have money, but also my bank doesn't have a record of what I currently owe on my mortgage. The deed to my home, filed with my county (paper) indicates that the bank has a lien on the property, but couldn't represent the monetary value assigned to that lien.

Given our current legal/judicial environment, I'm pretty sure that means the banks get all the houses and homelessness becomes a felony.

It would be a rough restart for the folks who rely on e-statements for their accounts. Suddenly the bank doesn't have access to bank account balances, neither does the customer - and the customer needs $100 to buy food with.

Might make printing out statements for all one's accounts quarterly a wise idea.

I am hanging onto some gold jewelry (bought on ebay way back when, because it was a steal). I remember reading somewhere: "have a bit of gold, and pray that you will never have to use it."

I've also had a notion to stash $1000 in a hollowed-out table leg in case there's a solar flare and our payment systems are down. But if the world goes to shit, I don't think paper $ would mean a whole lot.

I guess a few bags of dried beans would be a good thing, but at that point I'd just want a quick and painless exit.

For the specific question of being able to pay for things if the banks stop working (plus credit cards, etc), it's probably worth reading up on what happened during the bank strike in ireland back in the 1970s which lasted six months (https://bankunderground.co.uk/2016/01/20/the-cheque-republic-money-in-a-modern-economy-with-no-banks/) Essentially life went on, and people exchanged lots of (temporarily uncashable) checks. However, it was important to be a person clearly known in the community though as many businesses only did business with their regulars until the strike ended.

I keep a fair bit of cash on hand, not enough for all my regular expenses, but it'd take care of mission critical stuff (like food) for at least a couple of months. I also make sure I have lots of $1 bills on hand, not just $20s or larger denomination, which would reduce issues with shops being unable to make change. Nothing in my regular life truly _requires_ the use of a car on a daily/weekly/monthly basis, so that'd help too.